


Stars are only the rain of the absolute

by DarkmoonSigel



Series: The Notes Played In Between [44]
Category: Adam (2009), Charlie Countryman (2013), Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Adam Raki Loves Nigel (Charlie Countryman), Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Kissing in the Rain, M/M, Nigel (Charlie Countryman) Loves Adam Raki, Nigel is a piece of shit, Not Beta Read, Possessive Nigel (Charlie Countryman), Vulnerable Nigel (Charlie Countryman), but adam loves him anyway
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-19
Updated: 2017-08-19
Packaged: 2018-12-17 07:18:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11846646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkmoonSigel/pseuds/DarkmoonSigel
Summary: Nigel is feeling sorry for himself in New York after the whole Charlie Countryman incident. Adam never went to California after Beth dumped him. Some things are just meant to happen.





	Stars are only the rain of the absolute

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lignin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lignin/gifts).



> The title is a quote from the poet Dejan Stojanovic, 'The Sun Watches the Sun'. Obviously, I do not own it or anything else.
> 
> Hello there! I'm not dead. Long story short- I was suicidal, depressed, and homeless due to poor health, divorce, and being an addict. I'm doing much better now though, and I even wrote some books. They are available on Amazon. 
> 
> 'The Honest Prose of a Drunk' is a collection of poetry, all the poems in it written while I was drunk, high, tripping, or rolling. 
> 
> 'Today is for You' is a romantic comedy about food and other types of love.
> 
> 'Believe in the Night' and 'Believe in Shadows' are both stories about brave little girls and their monsters. 
> 
> A big heartfelt thanks to anyone and everyone who left a comment or kudos during my absence. They were seen and appreciated. They helped more than you will ever know.

“Excuse me, sir, but you are bleeding quite profusely from a laceration over your right eye.”

The stranger wasn’t wrong, but fuck him for pointing it out. All Nigel wanted to do was sit on a bench in Central Park and mope, liking how the raindrops kept falling on his head. Blurrily looking up, Nigel stared at the man who was interrupting his pity party, trying to make the fucker go away through sheer glowering willpower alone. 

It wasn’t working though. Sighing, Nigel wondered if coming to New York had made him lose his touch, or if New Yorkers were made from sterner stuff than most other dippy Americans. Rain or no rain, Nigel would have thought the better half of his face covering in blood and the rest of him a wreck of a bar fight would have put anyone off from casual conversation this late at night.

The man was carrying a small paper bag full of groceries in one arm while the other arm held out an umbrella over both their heads. The umbrella had moons and stars on it. Nigel wondered how long it had been raining for. He couldn’t remember when it had started or how he had gotten here. Doing a fuck load of blow will do that to a body though. Getting hit the head a few times will too. 

“Well, would you look at that? I am. I’m bleeding like a stuck pig. Will wonders never cease...” Nigel said, trailed off to take a drag from his cigarette, or would have if it wasn’t soaking wet and disintegrating between his fingers. He felt the rainwater drip off of his face and the tip of his nose, dripping diluted blood onto his little dog shirt and brown leather jacket, staining the former red. 

His hands were fucked up from fighting. Nigel tried to remember what bar he would not be returning to any time soon, but it was all a blur. Fucking Russians must have hit him in the head a few times more times than Nigel could recall at the moment. He didn’t think anyone was dead though.

“It looks like several different lacerations centered round a rather large one.” The man with the umbrella informed Nigel. He didn’t look particularly perturbed about it though, so Nigel guessed that it wasn’t that bad. That, or this stranger had seen worse. He couldn’t really tell though. Umbrella guy was giving Nigel nothing to work with. If anything, umbrella guy looked and sounded bored as hell. 

“That’s what happens when someone hits you in the head with a beer bottle.” Nigel sighed, bits and pieces coming back to him. “Kiss it, and make it better?”

“The human mouth is full of bacteria. If I were to do that, your wonder wound would probably get infected. I also don’t know if you have any diseases so I would prefer not to exchange that level of bodily fluids with you.” The man said, his expression still giving nothing away. Nigel couldn’t tell if the guy was screwing with him or not. Considering how fucked up he was still though, that didn’t really bother Nigel. Drugs could be a beautiful thing. Hell for all he knew, umbrella guy was a hallucination.

“I’ll take that as a ‘no’ then.” Nigel sighed, waiting for the strange man to wander off or dissappear. Except, he didn’t.

“Why?” The man asked.

“Why what?” Nigel was feeling confused, but at least, umbrella guy was an attractive distraction. If he were real and not a very vivid hallucination, the man had pretty blue eyes and pretty lips, hell, a pretty everything really. Nigel congratulated his brain for the upgrade. His hallucinations usually weren’t this good looking. 

“Why would you want me to kiss it?” The man asked in all seriousness. 

“Because...what’s your name, pretty eyes? I didn’t catch your name.” Nigel asked, cause why the hell not. He wasn’t doing jackshit at the moment, other than bleeding on himself. 

“I-I’m sorry. We haven’t introduced ourselves to each other yet. I didn’t expect this conversation to be that long.” The man stammered, looking actually bothered about something now. Nigel wondered what had happened to earn that sort of reaction. “My name is Adam, Adam Raki.”

“Well Adam, I’m Nigel, and you really shouldn’t give out your full name to strangers like that. I could be a gypsy planning to curse you.” Nigel laughed at his own joke. It only really  
made sense to him, and all thanks to Gabi and her fucking dead father, may his gypo soul burn in hell for bringing Charlie Countryman into his life. 

“Are you?” Adam asked, titling his head as he studied Nigel with a sudden renewed interest.

“What?” Nigel said, caught off guard by the focused attention. He hadn’t been expecting this sort of conversation either.

“A gypsy. Are you a gypsy?” Adam clarified.

“Fuck no!” Nigel spat out. To keep himself from reacting in a bad way, he had to remind himself that he was in America now, and Americans didn’t realize that half the shit they said was offensive to the rest of the world.

“Oh. That’s disappointing. I’ve never met a real gypsy before.” Adam said, Nigel noticing that his tone of voice went back to being flat. The former drug lord decided that he was definitely far too fucked up to be having this conversation, but Adam was still standing in front of him. Even worse, he looked like he was still waiting for something. 

“What do you want?” Nigel finally asked, torn between feeling pissed off and turned on. This Adam was either very stupid or very brave to be talking to a bleeding man who had obviously just been in a fight.

“You were going to tell me why you wanted me to kiss your wound, which is still bleeding by the way. You should drink less so your blood will coagulate sooner.” Adam said, wrinkling his nose. It made Nigel wonder when was the last time he’d taken a bath or washed his clothing. Nigel realized he must be a delight for the senses if Adam could smell him from where he stood.

“Care of the soul, I guess.” Nigel chuckled, ignoring that last part of him drinking less. “I wanted you to kiss me because I think you’re beautiful, and I haven’t been kissed in a long time.”

“You think I’m...beautiful?” Adam asked, biting his lower lip as he looked away.

“Yeah, I do.” Nigel grinned, reaching up to touch that soft looking skin and those dark curls while Adam wasn’t looking at him. Or at least he tried to, until Nigel noticed himself. His hands were bleeding, the knuckles swollen and red from fighting. Christ, he even still had some coke crusted under his pinkie nail. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had any real food or drank just water or slept more than four hours at a time. What the fuck was he doing talking to some lamb of a kid who was obviously on his way home from the store, some good Samaritan who had stopped to check in on a complete stranger because they were hurt?

“But you probably have better things to do than talk to an old drunk like me...” Nigel sighed, letting his hand fall back to his side. He leaned back against the bench, out away enough from the umbrella’s cover so that the rain could start hitting his face again. Nigel closed his eyes so that the rainwater could pool there. Warming up enough so that when it spilled over his cheeks and the sides of his face, it felt like real tears. 

“No, I don’t.” Adam’s voice sounded closer than it really should have, the only warning Nigel got before soft lips were pressed to his own. It startled Nigel badly enough that he flinched, making Adam jump back.

“I’m sorry. Was it bad? Did I do it wrong?” Adam said, the younger man looking mortified as he shrank underneath his umbrella. He looked ready to bolt.

“No, no. Why did you kiss me?” Nigel said quickly, catching Adam by his belt loop before he could get away. He reached up to steady Adam’s groceries which were in danger of falling out of their paper bag.

“You asked me to?” Adam answered, not sounding confident about it. He had been pretty certain about Nigel wanting a kiss, or at least, he thought he had.

“Oh...yeah, I guess I did.” Nigel said softly, releasing his hold on Adam so that he could touch his own lips.

“Was it bad?” Adam made himself ask. Nigel didn’t look upset, but Adam had also thought he’d wanted a kiss. 

“No! No, it was just unexpected is all. Something like that, you want it to last longer.” Nigel said, “It was everything I wanted and more. Thank you.”

“Well, that’s good. Um...did you want a Band-Aid from your head? It’s still bleeding.” Adam asked, feeling very uncertain about life. He had been trying to do new things lately, now that he wasn’t with Beth anymore. Adam felt the strange need to prove her wrong about him, to challenge all her little critiques about his behavior and his inability to care about other people.

“Do you have one on you?” Nigel asked. Damn his needy soul, he wanted another kiss from this Adam, a real one though.

“No.” Adam said, mentally groaning at himself. He should have thought of that. Yet another misstep, but one he could still recover from.

“Then why did you offer?” Nigel said, laughing a little. Adam seemed to be a nice enough person, even if he was a little strange. 

“I have some in the cabinet in my bathroom.” Adam said slowly, making up his mind if Nigel was affable to the idea. That and his bag of groceries was getting heavy, and he had frozen food to put away.

“Are you inviting me over, Adam?” Nigel said, arching a brow at his odd company. He would have never pegged Adam for the type to bring a complete stranger home, especially one looking as rough as him.

“I don’t know. I’m thinking about it. Are you a murderer?” Adam asked.

Nigel was so startled by the question he laughed sharp and loud. “I’ve never been convicted.” He said in all honesty.

“It’s a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question.” Adam frowned. It was a simple question, or at least, he thought it was.

“Adam, I am a very bad man, and let’s just leave it at that. You should most definitely not be bringing me home with you.” Nigel said, deciding to take the higher road for once in his fucking life. He had no idea why Adam was even bothering to talk to him, much less invite him home. The kid didn’t look like he had a death wish. Adam didn’t look or sounded like he wanted much of anything really. 

“Is that why you are bleeding? Because you are a bad man?” Adam asked. He wasn’t stupid. Adam was well aware that people could be evil, what they were capable of, but he had never met anyone who had flat out told him that they were bad. He usually had to find out that sort of thing for himself. 

“Yes and no. I got drunk, some Russians showed up, some words that were better left unsaid were said, and then I got really stupid. The good news is that I gave as good as I got, if not better, since I’m still able to walk out of the bar, and as much as I can remember, they didn’t.” Nigel offered, waiting for Adam to walk away. He made himself promise to not follow this delightful little person home. He would forget all about this as soon as Adam walked away. If he could find it in this state, Nigel decided he would go back to the shitty studio apartment he was paying too much for and do a few more lines, patch himself up, and then call it a night. 

“Are you still drunk? Is that why you told me I’m beautiful?” Adam sighed. That would make more sense to him. 

“Adam, I am a very bad man, but I would not lie about that. I could dress you in diamonds and pearls, and they still wouldn’t be comparable to your beauty.” Nigel said, reaching over to the hand holding the umbrella to bring Adam’s knuckles up to his lips. Having nothing to lose or offer, Nigel pressed a soft kiss to them. “The rain and talking to you have sobered me up.”

“That’s not how alcohol and the human metabolism work.” Adam told him, clearly not impressed though his hand now tingled in a very good way.

“I am still feeling good, but I am not drunk, Adam.” Nigel admitted, liking how Adam’s name tasted in his mouth.

“If I take you home, are you going to hurt me?” Adam asked, genuinely curious. 

“Adam, if you take me home, I promise by all the stars in the sky that I will never hurt you. I will never lie to you, I will never steal from you. As this night sky as my witness, I promise you that you are safe with me.” Nigel heard the words leaving his mouth, his foolish heart already praying for something impossible to happen like it had before with Gabi. Nigel’s head argued that there was no way in hell that this kid was going to take him home. The Romanian knew he was looked like human garbage, and even to his own ears, sounded pathetic.

“F-follow me.” Adam stammered, tucking his umbrella back to the crook of his arm so that he could offer Nigel his hand. 

Swallowing down the lump forming in his throat, Nigel tried to tell off his heart and head, but all he got was a headache and more heartache for even trying. Unable to speak, and even if he could what would he say, Nigel let himself be led to a better part of the city, to an old brownstone townhouse apartment building.

The place was nice, nicer than anything Nigel had ever lived in. The furniture was older, but obviously well taken care. There were definitely more books than decorations. Nigel didn’t feel clean enough to sit on any of the furniture though, and Adam didn’t offer him a seat. Instead, Adam carefully dried off his umbrella with a hand towel, even going so far as to fold it before hanging it off the edge of a real honest-to-god umbrella stand where the umbrella was then stored. 

Leaving Nigel to wander after him or not, Adam put away his groceries, all the food simple. Frozen chicken, frozen mac and cheese, frozen broccoli, All-bran cereal, instant chicken noodles soup, coffee, and milk were all meticulously put away. His host’s task done, Nigel was led to a bathroom where Adam attended to his head, cleaning the wound with antibacterial wipes that stung. He carefully pressed the cut back together, holding it in place as the liquid bandage dried, which smelled kind of like banana candy to Nigel.  
Adam finished by putting little perfectly sized Band-Aids over the smaller cuts, cleaning Nigel’s face with more wipes. The alcohol from the wipe evaporating off of his skin chilled Nigel in an odd way, or maybe it was from all the careful attention being lavished upon him. 

When was the last time anyone had touched him this gently? Hell, Darko would have thrown a roll of duct tape at his bleeding head and told him to go sort himself out, much like he had after that rookie cop had taken a potshot at Nigel. Darko was never going to let Nigel live it down that a bullet had ricocheted off his skull, knocking him out.  
Everyone had thought that Nigel died that night. Maybe the world would have been better off if he had. Call it a miracle or just dumb luck, Nigel survived his old life to try and start a new one here in America, letting Darko handle the fallout. For whatever reason, the universe seemed pretty keen on giving him his very own angel now too. 

“I don’t want to leave you.” Nigel said, knowing he was pressing his luck. There was no way in hell Adam would go for that. Hell, he didn’t even know what the fuck he was asking for so why should Adam. “I want to stay here.”

“Won’t your family miss you?” Adam asked, wiping down more of Nigel’s skin with a wipe. Most of the blood was gone now, but Nigel still appeared to be quite dirty. Adam was somewhat fascinated by it, the wipes coming back grey. 

“I don’t have a family. No one will miss me.” Nigel grunted, wondering why Adam was cleaning behind his ear. It felt good though so he rolled with it.

“What about work?” Adam said, making himself stop before he weirded Nigel out by all his attention to detail. It bothered him though, Nigel’s right ear cleaner than his left. 

“I don’t have to work. I have plenty of money.” Nigel said, looking up at Adam to see what kind of reaction he got. He decided that Adam should really play poker, if he didn’t already. The kid had one hell of a poker face.

“Okay.”

“Okay, what?”

“You can stay here. You’ll have to take a bath though. You smell horrible, and your clothes is filthy.” Adam said, like it were all that simple. Nigel felt like someone could have knocked him over with a feather, he was so in shock.

“Just like that? But you don’t know anything about me.” Nigel pointed out, hating himself for it.

"I know you don’t have a family or a job, but plenty of money. I also know that you promised not to hurt me in any way.” Adam shrugged. “As long as you don’t move my things around, or make a mess, I’m fine with you staying here.”

“How are you real?” Nigel asked more in shock than anything. He was almost certain that he was dying on the bench in the park, and this was just some sort of drug induced dream.

“Do you want me to answer that, or is it rhetorical question?” Adam hated rhetorical questions. 

“No, you...you’re like a dream that I don’t want to wake up from. People like me don’t deserve people like you. You shouldn’t even be talking to me. I’m a monster.” Nigel told him. 

“You look like a very tired, dirty man to me.” Adam said, looking Nigel over again.

“I am that too. Thank you for reminding me.” Nigel laughed, his own voice hoarse and tight with emotion.

“You can take a shower.” Adam offered helpfully. 

“And then what?” Nigel said, feeling surreal. He almost wanted Adam to tell him this was just about sex and getting off, that he had a ‘sleeping with a stranger’ kink. Nigel wanted to hear something that made more sense to him than someone wanting to be nice just for the hell of it. 

“You should probably go to sleep afterward.” Adam shrugged. “Or you can stay up, as long as you are quiet about it.”

“What are you going to do?” Nigel asked, suddenly suspicious. If something sounded too good to be true, most of the time it was.

“I’m going to take a shower and go to sleep too. I’m already 17 minutes past my bedtime.” Adam said, hoping that Nigel just wanted to go to sleep. He didn’t feel like staying up and playing host. “It’s fine though, because it’s Friday, and I don’t work on the weekends so I’m not that upset about it. I’m working on being more flexible with my schedule. This will be good practice.”

“I don’t want to make you upset or keep you up.” Nigel didn’t know what to do with an adult who apparently had a bed time he was late for so he opted to just take the damn shower. “Do you have a towel and some clothing I can borrow?”

“Oh! Yes, I’m sorry. I should have offered.” Adam said, chiding himself for not remembering as he quickly went to his bedroom to grab some spare pajama bottoms he wouldn’t mind Nigel borrowing. He was falling back into old habits now that he didn’t have people over on a regular basis. Harlan didn’t count because he never stayed the night. “Although your legs are longer than mine, these should fit. I’m sorry there is no underwear, but I can’t let you borrow that.”

“That’s fine. I don’t wear underwear.” Nigel shrugged, biting the inside of his cheek at Adam’s shocked expression. The younger man seemed to wander off in somewhat of a daze as he took Nigel’s filthy clothing along with him. Nigel hoped Adam intended on washing them and not just throwing them out, though Nigel wouldn’t fault Adam if he did.  
Showering after being dirty for so long felt glorious, Nigel shamelessly groaning in pleasure from it. He used every product that Adam had in his bathroom until his skin was shiny and pink. The pants did fit for the most part except for in the legs as Adam had predicted. On a roll, Nigel shaved off all his whiskers, the salt and pepper hair almost long enough to be called a beard. He really hadn’t been taking care of himself, Nigel sighing at his reflection. 

After cleaning up after himself the best that he could, Nigel went to look for Adam to find out where he was sleeping. He found Adam in the living room, the dark room lit up from within, a single device sitting on the coffee table throwing moving stars and planets onto the walls.

“Wow.” Was all Nigel could really say. He’d never seen anything like it before. Nigel regretted to see that it was enough to startle Adam out of his quiet contemplation.

“I’m sorry. You were taking so long, and this relaxes...” Adam began to say, trailing off as his eyes grew wide. He looked over at Nigel and couldn’t seem to look away now. 

“I hope you can forgive me. I borrowed your razor.” Nigel said, reaching his own pause though as Adam kept staring at him. “What is it? Did I miss a spot?

“N-no. No, you did not. I’m sorry.” Adam was stammering again, and hating himself for it. 

“You don’t have to apologize. Just tell me why you are staring? Did you prefer the beard?” Nigel grinned.

“You are very handsome and shirtless. I-I mean you were before too, but you...” Adam said, blushing and fidgeting until his fingers started to clench and unclench all on their own. “I’m sorry I shouldn’t have said anything.”

Stepping quickly forward, Nigel shushed Adam with a firm kiss, catching the younger man’s hands in his own until they were still.

“Did you use my toothbrush? You taste minty. You tasted like alcohol and cigarettes before.” Were the first words out of Adam’s mouth when they finally came up for some air. 

“Only your mouthwash. There was no contact with the rim. I poured it right into my mouth. You don’t know where I’ve been.” Nigel said, trying not to laugh. Adam was a lot of things, but he wasn’t boring, that was for damn sure. Also his hands were very soft and smooth. Nigel liked holding them, and even better, Adam didn’t seem adverse to letting him. 

“T-that’s fine.” Adam murmured, his eyes darted from Nigel’s lips to almost his eyes. Not quite, but almost. “I still need to take my shower.”

“Show me where you want me to sleep.” Nigel nodded, mentally begging for it not to be on the couch. Nigel didn’t know what kind of favor he owed to the god who was looking out for his sorry ass, but the Romanian’s wish was granted, Nigel led to a bedroom, the walls of it painted a pale blue. It was also had a very prominent space theme if the astronaut’s suit hanging beside the closest was anything to go by. It certianly didn’t look fake or cheap.

“I like space.” Adam said shyly, knowing his room hadn’t been ‘updated in forever’ as Beth had put it. 

“I can tell.” Was all Nigel said, sitting on the bed to find it firm. Nigel thanked every god, spirit, and devil he could think of. He prayed he never wake up from this dream, or whatever the hell this was. Nigel realized he was more tired than he thought, the man falling asleep as soon as his head settled on the pillow. 

Having a chance for some real rest for once, his body took it, Nigel falling into such a deep sleep that he completely forgot where he was at first when he woke up. Taking in the unfamiliar surroundings, Nigel hazily pieced the previous night back together bit by bit, until he was awake enough to register the warm body pressed up against his back.  
Turning over slowly as not to disturb his host, Nigel discovered that Adam was even more beautiful in the daylight, sleep making him look even more innocent if that was even possible. Nigel was in awe, daring to trace his calloused fingertips over smooth cheeks and sculpted lips, lips that had kissed him and that he had kissed. 

“Am I dead? Did I finally fucking overdose? If I did, how the hell did I get into heaven??” Nigel whispered as he leaned in so that he could feel those curls on his face and smell Adam’s skin, salty fresh and natural from sleeping with another person under blankets. “I got my very own angel.”

“No, you are not. You snore too much to be dead.” Adam muttered, waking up just enough to be responsive. His bed was really too small for two full grown men to sleep in comfortably, but Adam had wanted to sleep beside someone again. Nigel snored and twitched in his sleep more than Beth ever had, but it had still been nice to experience. 

“Did I keep you up?” Nigel asked, falling in love all over again when those blue grey eyes focused on him. 

“No. I kicked you until you turned over and stopped.” Adam said softly, hoping that Nigel went back to sleep for a little while. Adam wanted to have his coffee and bowl of All-Bran cereal in peace and quiet. He reminded himself that he was trying to learn to be more flexible though with other people and his schedules. 

“You’re sassy for an angel.”

“I’m an electrical engineer, not an angel.” Adam yawned.

“Could have fooled me, pretty eyes.” Nigel smiled, “Beauty and brains, the entire package. You’ll never get rid of me if you keep this up.”

“Maybe I don’t want to get rid of you.” Adam said.

“Do you do this often? Pick up strange men, let them use your shower, and then cuddle them when they fall asleep? Is that your kink?” Nigel asked.

“No. never. I usually don’t like other people, or more accurately, other people don’t really care to be around me for extended periods of time.” Adam admitted. 

“I find that hard to believe.” Nigel said, feeling that he could murder a cigarette or two. Adam didn’t smell like a smoker though. Odds were that he was fuck out of luck. Nigel vaguely remembered trying to smoke in the rain like a complete dumbass, so his pack was probably waterlogged mush.

“I’m not the easiest person to talk to.” Adam sighed.

“I’ve been doing just fine.” Nigel said with a shrug, hoping and praying that Adam was the coffee drinking type. He was starting to get one hell of a headache, the drugs starting to leave his system. 

"That’s because you don’t really know me.” Adam said. “I’m going to go make some coffee, and I need to eat.”

“I would like to.” Nigel heard himself say, “I would like to get to know you, especially if you are offering to make me breakfast.”  
“Do you really mean that? I can’t tell if you’re lying.” Adam asked, instead of inquiring was so impressive about pouring cereal into a bowl.

“I promised to never lie to you. If you let me, I’ll stay here with you.” Nigel

“Don’t you need to be somewhere?”

“No.” Nigel laughed at himself, at his sorry lot in life now. “No one gives a flying fuck about me. I’m not an important person anymore.”

“What did you do before that made you important?”

“You are better off not knowing, and I promised not to lie or hurt you. You won’t like my truth, pretty eyes, and you’ll live a lot longer not knowing it.” Nigel said, following Adam out into the kitchen. Praising all the saints and angels he could think of, Nigel watched Adam make coffee and tried not to think about smoking. Breakfast appeared to be edible cardboard drowned in milk though. 

“Why do you want to stay here with me?” Adam asked around a mouthful of All-Bran.

“Do you believe in fate, magic, or love at first sight?” Nigel decided to focus more on the coffee than the future bowel movement sitting in front of him, getting soggier by the minute. 

“No.” Adam said flatly.

“I do. I’m crazy like that. It’s the love, you know. It’s my curse. I’m afraid the love drives me quite insane.” Nigel smiled, feeling bittersweet about life and all the things he had done to get to this point. 

“So, you are delusional?” Adam said, bringing Nigel back down to earth. 

“I prefer the word smitten. You’re not a romantic, I take it?” Nigel grinned.

“N-no, I’m not. I’m not really wired that way for it.” Adam said, knowing at some point that he was going to have to tell Nigel about himself.

“How are you wired?”

Um, oh....I-I have this condition...It’s called Asperger’s Syndrome.” Adam stammered, hating himself for it. It never got any easier to talk about, and even worse, everyone responded  
differently when he told them about it. 

“What does that mean? Is that some sort of new STD I don’t know about?” Nigel asked with a shrug, making Adam stare back at the man in surprise. 

“No. No. It just means that I’m not good with people because my brain is wired differently from...” Adam started to explain, his heart feeling like it was in his throat. He didn’t want to tell Nigel about his autism, at least just not yet. To Adam’s surprise, he didn’t have to. 

"I’m fine with you not being good with other people.” Nigel interrupted. They seemed to be playing this shit by ear so he was going to take whatever Adam threw at him with a smile and a nod. “I want to be the only person you are good with.” 

“Oh. Okay. I think I’m fine with that too.” Adam said, smiling down at his All-Bran. “Are you staying here with me then?”

“Yes. Yes, I am.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading. Your kudos tries to smoke in the rain while your comments make out with Nigel.


End file.
